The Relationship of Workplace Health Climate and Participation in an Employee Wellness Program

Victor Tringali; Matthew Fritts; Joseph Giandonato; Madeline Luehr; Caroline Reilly; Jenna Moody; Chad Aldridge

doi:doi:10.11648/j.ajhr.20221001.13

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The Relationship of Workplace Health Climate and Participation in an Employee Wellness Program

Victor Tringali, Matthew Fritts, Joseph Giandonato, Madeline Luehr, Caroline Reilly, Jenna Moody, Chad Aldridge

Published in American Journal of Health Research (Volume 10, Issue 1)

Received: 1 January 2022 Accepted: 17 January 2022 Published: 5 February 2022

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Abstract

Employee wellness programs provide numerous benefits for employers and employees, however, achieving high participation is critical to their success. Workplace health climate, a measure of perceptions of support and environmental conditions, has been shown to influence participation in wellness programs. Thus, our study’s primary aim was to gain a better understanding of the relationship between workplace health climate and participation in an employee wellness program. The inquiry design was a needs assessment utilizing a 16-item survey. Respondents consisted of 1618 employees of a public university. Differences in workplace health climate scores based on wellness program participation, sex, and university company were compared and contrasted. There was a significant difference in total scores between wellness program participants 3.85 and non-participants 3.74, p-value 0.007. There were also significant differences in total scores among the three primary companies. The Academic Division had a mean total score of 3.90, the Physicians Group had a score of 3.81, and the Medical Center had a score of 3.70, p-value<0.001. There were no significant differences in total scores between sexes, p-value 0.153. The findings from our investigation support earlier research and suggest a favorable workplace health climate is associated with employees’ participation in wellness programs. Additionally, workplace health climate can vary among business units and suggest a more favorable health climate might be attained by addressing employees’ perceptions of organizational support. To our knowledge, this is the first study to explore the constituent elements of workplace health climate, and their association with participation in wellness programs.

Published in	American Journal of Health Research (Volume 10, Issue 1)
DOI	10.11648/j.ajhr.20221001.13
Page(s)	13-19
Creative Commons	This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright	Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Worksite Health Promotion, Well-being, Social Environment, Organizational Support, Employee Wellness, Leadership

References

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[7]	Perrault, E. K., Hildenbrand, G. M., and Rnoh, R. H. (2020). Employees’ refusals to participate in an employer-sponsored wellness program: Barriers and benefits to engagement. Compensation & Benefits Review, Vol. 52, No. 1, pp. 8-18. DOI: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0886368719899209.
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[11]	Lemon, S. C., Zapka, J., Li, W., Estabrook, B., Magner, R., and Rosal, M. C. (2009). Perceptions of worksite support and employee obesity, activity, and diet. American Journal of Health Behavior, Vol. 33, No. 3, pp. 299-308. DOI: https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/png/ajhb/2009/00000033/00000003/art00008.
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APA Style

Victor Tringali, Matthew Fritts, Joseph Giandonato, Madeline Luehr, Caroline Reilly, et al. (2022). The Relationship of Workplace Health Climate and Participation in an Employee Wellness Program. American Journal of Health Research, 10(1), 13-19. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajhr.20221001.13

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ACS Style

Victor Tringali; Matthew Fritts; Joseph Giandonato; Madeline Luehr; Caroline Reilly, et al. The Relationship of Workplace Health Climate and Participation in an Employee Wellness Program. Am. J. Health Res. 2022, 10(1), 13-19. doi: 10.11648/j.ajhr.20221001.13

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AMA Style

Victor Tringali, Matthew Fritts, Joseph Giandonato, Madeline Luehr, Caroline Reilly, et al. The Relationship of Workplace Health Climate and Participation in an Employee Wellness Program. Am J Health Res. 2022;10(1):13-19. doi: 10.11648/j.ajhr.20221001.13

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@article{10.11648/j.ajhr.20221001.13,
  author = {Victor Tringali and Matthew Fritts and Joseph Giandonato and Madeline Luehr and Caroline Reilly and Jenna Moody and Chad Aldridge},
  title = {The Relationship of Workplace Health Climate and Participation in an Employee Wellness Program},
  journal = {American Journal of Health Research},
  volume = {10},
  number = {1},
  pages = {13-19},
  doi = {10.11648/j.ajhr.20221001.13},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajhr.20221001.13},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ajhr.20221001.13},
  abstract = {Employee wellness programs provide numerous benefits for employers and employees, however, achieving high participation is critical to their success. Workplace health climate, a measure of perceptions of support and environmental conditions, has been shown to influence participation in wellness programs. Thus, our study’s primary aim was to gain a better understanding of the relationship between workplace health climate and participation in an employee wellness program. The inquiry design was a needs assessment utilizing a 16-item survey. Respondents consisted of 1618 employees of a public university. Differences in workplace health climate scores based on wellness program participation, sex, and university company were compared and contrasted. There was a significant difference in total scores between wellness program participants 3.85 and non-participants 3.74, p-value 0.007. There were also significant differences in total scores among the three primary companies. The Academic Division had a mean total score of 3.90, the Physicians Group had a score of 3.81, and the Medical Center had a score of 3.70, p-value<0.001. There were no significant differences in total scores between sexes, p-value 0.153. The findings from our investigation support earlier research and suggest a favorable workplace health climate is associated with employees’ participation in wellness programs. Additionally, workplace health climate can vary among business units and suggest a more favorable health climate might be attained by addressing employees’ perceptions of organizational support. To our knowledge, this is the first study to explore the constituent elements of workplace health climate, and their association with participation in wellness programs.},
 year = {2022}
}

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TY - JOUR
T1 - The Relationship of Workplace Health Climate and Participation in an Employee Wellness Program
AU - Victor Tringali
AU - Matthew Fritts
AU - Joseph Giandonato
AU - Madeline Luehr
AU - Caroline Reilly
AU - Jenna Moody
AU - Chad Aldridge
Y1 - 2022/02/05
PY - 2022
N1 - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajhr.20221001.13
DO - 10.11648/j.ajhr.20221001.13
T2 - American Journal of Health Research
JF - American Journal of Health Research
JO - American Journal of Health Research
SP - 13
EP - 19
PB - Science Publishing Group
SN - 2330-8796
UR - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajhr.20221001.13
AB - Employee wellness programs provide numerous benefits for employers and employees, however, achieving high participation is critical to their success. Workplace health climate, a measure of perceptions of support and environmental conditions, has been shown to influence participation in wellness programs. Thus, our study’s primary aim was to gain a better understanding of the relationship between workplace health climate and participation in an employee wellness program. The inquiry design was a needs assessment utilizing a 16-item survey. Respondents consisted of 1618 employees of a public university. Differences in workplace health climate scores based on wellness program participation, sex, and university company were compared and contrasted. There was a significant difference in total scores between wellness program participants 3.85 and non-participants 3.74, p-value 0.007. There were also significant differences in total scores among the three primary companies. The Academic Division had a mean total score of 3.90, the Physicians Group had a score of 3.81, and the Medical Center had a score of 3.70, p-value<0.001. There were no significant differences in total scores between sexes, p-value 0.153. The findings from our investigation support earlier research and suggest a favorable workplace health climate is associated with employees’ participation in wellness programs. Additionally, workplace health climate can vary among business units and suggest a more favorable health climate might be attained by addressing employees’ perceptions of organizational support. To our knowledge, this is the first study to explore the constituent elements of workplace health climate, and their association with participation in wellness programs.
VL - 10
IS - 1
ER -

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Author Information

Victor Tringali

Department of Public Health Sciences, UVA School of Medicine, Charlottesville, USA
Matthew Fritts

Department of Human Resources, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, USA
Joseph Giandonato

Department of Human Resources, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, USA
Madeline Luehr

Department of Public Health Sciences, UVA School of Medicine, Charlottesville, USA
Caroline Reilly

Department of Public Health Sciences, UVA School of Medicine, Charlottesville, USA
Jenna Moody

Department of Public Health Sciences, UVA School of Medicine, Charlottesville, USA
Chad Aldridge

Department of Therapy Services, UVA Medical Center, Charlottesville, USA

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APA Style

Victor Tringali, Matthew Fritts, Joseph Giandonato, Madeline Luehr, Caroline Reilly, et al. (2022). The Relationship of Workplace Health Climate and Participation in an Employee Wellness Program. American Journal of Health Research, 10(1), 13-19. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajhr.20221001.13

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ACS Style

Victor Tringali; Matthew Fritts; Joseph Giandonato; Madeline Luehr; Caroline Reilly, et al. The Relationship of Workplace Health Climate and Participation in an Employee Wellness Program. Am. J. Health Res. 2022, 10(1), 13-19. doi: 10.11648/j.ajhr.20221001.13

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AMA Style

Victor Tringali, Matthew Fritts, Joseph Giandonato, Madeline Luehr, Caroline Reilly, et al. The Relationship of Workplace Health Climate and Participation in an Employee Wellness Program. Am J Health Res. 2022;10(1):13-19. doi: 10.11648/j.ajhr.20221001.13

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@article{10.11648/j.ajhr.20221001.13,
  author = {Victor Tringali and Matthew Fritts and Joseph Giandonato and Madeline Luehr and Caroline Reilly and Jenna Moody and Chad Aldridge},
  title = {The Relationship of Workplace Health Climate and Participation in an Employee Wellness Program},
  journal = {American Journal of Health Research},
  volume = {10},
  number = {1},
  pages = {13-19},
  doi = {10.11648/j.ajhr.20221001.13},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajhr.20221001.13},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ajhr.20221001.13},
  abstract = {Employee wellness programs provide numerous benefits for employers and employees, however, achieving high participation is critical to their success. Workplace health climate, a measure of perceptions of support and environmental conditions, has been shown to influence participation in wellness programs. Thus, our study’s primary aim was to gain a better understanding of the relationship between workplace health climate and participation in an employee wellness program. The inquiry design was a needs assessment utilizing a 16-item survey. Respondents consisted of 1618 employees of a public university. Differences in workplace health climate scores based on wellness program participation, sex, and university company were compared and contrasted. There was a significant difference in total scores between wellness program participants 3.85 and non-participants 3.74, p-value 0.007. There were also significant differences in total scores among the three primary companies. The Academic Division had a mean total score of 3.90, the Physicians Group had a score of 3.81, and the Medical Center had a score of 3.70, p-value<0.001. There were no significant differences in total scores between sexes, p-value 0.153. The findings from our investigation support earlier research and suggest a favorable workplace health climate is associated with employees’ participation in wellness programs. Additionally, workplace health climate can vary among business units and suggest a more favorable health climate might be attained by addressing employees’ perceptions of organizational support. To our knowledge, this is the first study to explore the constituent elements of workplace health climate, and their association with participation in wellness programs.},
 year = {2022}
}

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